Journal 08 - Media Reviews

I chose to do my media reviews on the topic of design and color. I chose this topic because I found the lecture on color very interesting and liked how it seemed to relate to a career that I would love to have when I'm older. First, it was interesting how color can really communicate a point through ways such as how it creates and plays off of moods and how it is associated with different things and emotions such as green = the outdoors, eco-friendly, etc or how yellow = happy. Secondly, I am planning on majoring in marketing and minoring in graphic design (as I have mentioned before) which could very easily lead me to be someone that, for example, creates advertisements. Knowing how colors relate to mood, branding, and it's pyschological effects would be very helpful in this type of career.

1.) Chromotherapy

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHGDyMpuwJ0

According to this video and other articles on chromotherapy that I have read, research has shown that color truly can have a strong effect on a person's emotions. This video portrays the different effects that 5 separate colors can have on a person. One example of each color that is given follows:

Red: boosts energy

Blue: reduces physical and mental tension

Yellow: promotes feelings of happiness and security

Pink: soothes tempers

Orange: induces warm, friendly feelings

It is important for several different reasons for a designer to have a knowledge of which colors create which moods and feelings.

2.) The Blue Diet Light

Link:http://www.ionizeyourlife.com/dietlightweightloss.html

This website is about how using a blue light in your refrigerator can decrease appetite and increase positive decision making. The website promotes a diet weight loss plan that involves using this blue light and a form of hypnosis in order to make your "munchies" go away. Now, I don't know how effective the hypnosis CD is that comes with the package, but I was very interested in reading the facts about using blue lights to decrease appetite. This article relates very well to our color theory lecture and how color is essential to design - in this case, the design of a weight loss product.

3.) Car Color - Are the Myths True?

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVlWwMTImfM

This video discusess different car myths and either proves them to be true or made up. One of these myths is the idea that people who drive warmer colored cars are more likely to get a speeding ticket than those who drive cooler colored or black or white cars. However, I shouldn't use the word "myth" because according to the video, some police officers have admitted that a bright red car for example, is more likely to catch his or her attention than say, a black car. If that car was speeding, it would receive a ticket. There are more ideas also researched in this video relating colors and cars...watch for yourself to find out what they are!

4.) The Effects of Color on Memory Retention

Link: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MNT/is_2_58/ai_n6116729/

This article deals with the effects of color on memory retention. It contains a study that that was completed in which participants looked at 48 photographs that were in color, in black and white, or colored by colors that would not normally appear in that environment such as purple grass, for example. Then, later, 48 new pictures were added to the pile of the 48 older pictures and the participants were asked to identity which they had seen before and which they had not. The results of the study were that participants were much more likely to remember a colored photo that was also colored in ways that did match the environment it belonged in. Therefore, colors were seen to be a way to strenghthen memory. Knowing this can help a designer in his or her decision of what colors to choose in order for their product or advertisement (for example) to be memorable.

5.) Color Symbolism by Culture

Link: http://webdesign.about.com/od/color/a/bl_colorculture.htm

Even though this was the last link that I discovered, I found it to be one of the most interesting. This article talks about how different colors can mean completely different things in different cultures or parts of the world. For example, in China yellow is a color that represents nourishing while in Egypt it is the color of mourning. This topic is obviously very significant to any designer because it is important to know what messages you are subliminally delivering by your color choice. Yellow might be a happy color for an advertisement in the U.S. but it would be the polar opposite to someone living in Egypt.